The "Rakudo Perl 6 Compiler"<http://rakudo.org/> ("rakudo" for short) targets the "Parrot Virtual Machine"<http://parrotcode.org/>, and it currently lives in the "languages/perl6/"<http://svn.perl.org/parrot/trunk/languages/perl6/> directory of the "Parrot repository"<http://svn.perl.org/parrot/trunk/>.

To build the Rakudo Perl 6 compiler, first "get a working copy of Parrot"<http://www.parrotcode.org/source.html>, then change to the languages/perl6/ subdirectory and type

> `make perl6`

...which will build an executable.

Note that your 'make' command may not be exactly those four letters, and on Windows, the target is 'perl6.exe' instead of 'perl6'. So your command may end up looking like

> `nmake perl6.exe`

To run a program with Rakudo Perl 6, issue a command like

> `perl6 hello.pl`

Or, to run an interactive perl6, type

> `perl6`

For additional build instructions, you might also have a look at "this PerlMonks post"<http://www.perlmonks.net/?node_id=659584>.

Parrot and Rakudo change rapidly; if you have issues with the latest point release, be sure to try svn-latest of parrot/rakudo.

* [perl6 tasks]

Also check out [getting_involved Getting Involved] to learn about how to help with development.